Could resentment about how Kosinski depicted the Polish peasant have led to a campaign to discredit his book?
On the other hand, those who see The Painted Bird as a realistic portrayal (the words “brutal truth” are often used in reviews) may be predisposed to accept as true that which isn’t. We expect monsters when we think about Europe in the throes of World War II, and Kosinski provides them in abundance. That these monsters are not jack-booted Nazis would seem to undermine the Holocaust connection. The explanation given by his supporters is that Kosinski’s broad theme was the victimization of the powerless; if the evildoers in this firsthand account were peasants in Poland, so be it. Kosinski’s comments on the novel’s title corroborate these arguments. He states that he witnessed, as a child, a favorite entertainment of villagers. They would trap a bird, paint its feathers vivid colours, and then release it. When the painted bird returned to its flock the other birds attacked and killed it. The first time I read The Painted Bird, I was unaware of these complexities. I believed that the book
Related Questions
- There are three localized versions of LEd: American English, British English, and Polish. Are you going to provide other translations?
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